EXCLUSIVE: It was American Idol's newest judge Ellen DeGeneresí first day of taping the Hollywood segment, and she was excited and nervous, sources tell us. But then that turned to anger. Because, our insiders say, Simon Cowell was an hour and a half late for the taping. And Ellen stewed while she waited. She had reason: to accomodate both her talk show hosting duties and her American Idol judging duties, she had moved up her schedule so that now she shot the talk show earlier in the day and then jumped in the car to go to Idol. She was on time, and Cowell was not. "Here it was the first day of taping of the Hollywood shows, and Ellen was there waiting for Simon to show up. Ellen's new to the gig and she's very organized and she made a commitment to take this on, and now she's asking herself, 'What did I get myself into?' She called Simon Cowell a prima donna. So right from the start, the chemistry isn't great," an insider tells us.

With that, Ellen Degeneres contacted the pal who brought her to the primetime hit show, Fox alternative programming chief Mike Darnell, and made a request: she asked him to "hurry up and pick" Simon's successor. Cowell has told the world this will be his last season judging Idol to do his own U.S. version of The X Factor. But there's a problem, a big multi-pronged one, and it involves Ellen vs Simon, and Simon Fuller vs Simon Cowell, and American Idol vs The X Factor as well.

Our sources say that American Idol's first choice to succeed Cowell is former Sony music chief Tommy Mottola, best known to the public as Mariah Carey's ex-husband and the top executive behind Michael Jackson's music in its heyday. But Cowell has also designated Mottola as first choice to be a judge on Simon's American X Factor show just announced.

Cowell is reportedly being paid nearly $175 million for launching the new talent search show in the Fall of 2011. (Cowell didn't own American Idol and only gets paid to appear on it, but he does own X Factor and the whole brand. It is currently shown in 17 countries worldwide and is the No. 1 TV entertainment format in Europe. The X Factor format is owned by Syco, a global music, television and film production joint venture between Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment.)

Have we a phony with Nicci Nix? This might be interesting to watch! TMZ reports:

'American Idol' -- Duped by a Phoney???

Posted Feb 5th 2010 12:10AM by TMZ Staff

It seems one high-pitched "American Idol" favorite is not who she appears to be -- at least when it comes to her accent -- because Nicci Nix has been on all sorts of reality shows before ... with a completely different voice.

yea me too but i wonder y with all the info they get about the contestants before they even go befor simon and the bunch did she get that far??? i now a little about the aud prosess and she had to go trew severl audtions just to get to them so?? wth..i loved pants on the ground he was put on so 19 e could own the rights to him and that song jmo.. as for simond does he realy need his hands in every ones pockets, how much money does the guy need?? and if he realy doesn't love elen he will buy her out of her contract for sure.on a positive note i think we r going to get an awsome top 12..

Will New 'American Idol' Twitter, Facebook Rules Make A Difference? Unlike past years, semifinalists can now use social-media sites during the season.By Gil Kaufman

Up until this year, when an "American Idol" hopeful made it to Hollywood and beyond, he or she had to maintain a strict radio silence or risk being booted from the show for blabbing. But on Wednesday night, as season nine's top 24 were announced, "Idol" brass also revealed that this year's semifinalists would be allowed to post to "Idol"-approved MySpace, Facebook and Twitter pages, a potentially monumental thaw in the "Idol" universe.

"I think it's a great idea," said longtime "Idol" follower MJ Santilli, who runs one of the leading "Idol" fan sites, MJsBigBlog.com. "[It's] a way for the contestants to keep in touch with their fans and reveal parts of their personalities we don't see on the show. For instance, I never realized what a great sense of humor Kris Allen had until he began tweeting about Snuggies and SkyMall products!"

A spokesperson for "Idol" did not return requests for comment on how the new social-media functions will fit into the overall face of the show. It was unknown at press time if the contestants would be allowed to post freely or if their comments would be vetted by "Idol" brass before going up, and though all had Twitter feeds by Wednesday night, at press time, none of the contestants had tweeted anything to the accounts yet; their Facebook and MySpace accounts were all uniformly blank at press time as well, save for photos and a bit of basic biographical information. Continue reading: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1632183/20100218/index.jhtml

"Our fans are pretty good. They don't give away too much. Sometimes people love dropping spoilers, but our fans are good. They tend to do it in such a way that doesn't ruin it for fans who don't want to know."--Phil Keoghan

Ok was it just me or......................When Katie sang I Feel Good.....All I could picture was Adam Lambert strutting down the stairs last season. I don't think any idol should sing that song on the show after Adam.

Ok was it just me or......................When Katie sang I Feel Good.....All I could picture was Adam Lambert strutting down the stairs last season. I don't think any idol should sing that song on the show after Adam.

I didn't remember it, probably because it was so different from Adam's performance. When he performs, the first thing is you cannot avoid watching his every move because he is such a good performer. However, I do agree with you, it's never a good idea to sing something that can be compared to someone else who sang it better.

There's no wildcard round. I'll rather they do another week of elimination until the Final 8, and then the 16 eliminated contestants (8 guys and 8 girls) will perform on a special wildcard week and then each judge will pick the person that they like best.

At least this makes the show so much more better... it gives a chance to those people who were robbed to have a second chance!

I feel so guilty for not voting. I have been watching it on DVR after the voting is over. Guess I better try to watch more timely from now on. I thought this week the guys really did step it up compared to the past few weeks.

I was really hoping that they will bring someone back with the wild card round.

Vote For the Worst was pumping for Paige. I'm not sure how much influence they have now but I'm with Bee, I didn't realize that Lilly was in danger and didn't vote for her as much as I could have. She is so unique and so much better than some of the other girls.

Alex didn't deserve to go, and Lily TOTALLY didn't deserve to go. But personally, I was sadder to see Alex go. Maybe he ain't excellent yet, but he has such a unique voice, you'll know that it's him when you hear him. Not to mention that he has been on a steady improvement since week 1. Yes, he had his nerves and all but he's been improving so much. I feel that he has lots of raw, untapped potential in him that might surprise us if he had made the top 12. Oh well. And I feel so bad for Lily too. I'm sure she did expect to be in the top 12... That was one of the the most shocking eliminations I would say. Who'd have expected that? For once, I'm kinda annoyed with America's voting but it's been said and done, now we can only see of the top 12 will be able to step it up and not make the season suck. Because it was so good until the wrong people got eliminated. But oh well. We'll see. Hopefully it'll still be good and those "undeserving" finalists step it up and surprise us and those deserving ones do even better.

Siobhan she rocked it!! too bad kara had to compare her performance to Adam Lambert. not that it's bad but the girl is trying to make her own image!

second Crystal, she's a great singer just not a performer on the stage.. they are dollin her up though! nice and current with the look and clothes and they are working on her teeth! she looked great! and she was confident when talking to the judges

3rd possibly lee but the man needs to put some spice in his step! he's got a great voice needs way better song choices!!

who r gonners in my opinion: paige and urban

just for the heck of it Big Mike needs dancing lessons!! i felt like he was gonna trip and crush the stage!! : from mike fans!!